These pumpkin chocolate chip cookies are chewy, totally delicious, and the perfect way to say hello to autumn.
October and November are my favorite months. I love the light in October, the rich gold and the cold blue, the little bite in the morning air. Sweaters, apple cider, dozens of pumpkins sitting in yards and outside grocery stores. Football season food! Halloween movies!
And, of course, cooking with pumpkin. (Although I can’t stand the smell of raw pumpkin puree.) One of my best friends is obsessed with it, and I think of her whenever I eat it. Pumpkin chocolate chip cookies are an obvious first-week-of-October choice, and I couldn’t pass them up.
These pumpkin chocolate chip cookies are thick, chewy, and totally delicious. They’re flavored with molasses, pumpkin puree, and pumpkin spice. It’s a very easy recipe, too. You can do it all with a wooden spoon and one large mixing bowl (which is the best kind of cookie recipe). You can use light brown sugar if that’s all you have, but dark has a more robust flavor and works better with the pumpkin. You’ll notice there are no eggs in the ingredient list—that’s because the pumpkin acts as the binder and makes them unnecessary.
No matter how much I’d like to be one of those people who doesn’t require chilling time for chocolate chip cookie dough, I just don’t think it’ll happen. It just makes such a difference! Letting them set makes the flavor stronger and the texture chewier. The good news is that this dough only chills for half an hour, and the baked cookies set for an hour. So you can be eating these in just a couple of hours.
Here are the notes for this one:
- Pumpkin puree: Not pumpkin pie mix!
- Pumpkin pie spice: You can make your own if you want, but I used the pre-blended kind.
- Chocolate chips: You can use whatever type you want here. Milk, dark, semi-sweet. I think white chocolate chips would be really nice, too. Or a blend!
- Baking: Don’t overbake! Cookies should look underdone when you take them out of the oven. They’ll keep baking on the cookie sheet. Don’t be alarmed if they look a little puffy, either—they often fall after cooling, too.
- Cooling: They will be very, very soft when they first come out of the oven, which is why allowing them to set is crucial. They certainly won’t be bad if you eat them right away, but you won’t get the chewiness or the full blend of flavors.
Add a blanket and a Halloween for maximum fall vibes.
chewy pumpkin chocolate chip cookies
makes 22 cookies
time: ~2 hours (including prep, chill, baking, and set time)
ingredients
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 cup dark brown sugar, packed
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp molasses
1/3 cup pumpkin puree
2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1 ½ tsp baking soda
1 generous tsp salt
2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
2 cups chocolate chips
directions
- In a large mixing bowl, use a wooden spoon to mix the butter and sugars until well combined. Stir in vanilla, molasses, and pumpkin puree.
- Add half of the flour, all the baking soda, salt, and pumpkin pie spice to the top of the bowl. Use a fork to whisk the dry ingredients together. Mix whisked dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, then add the rest of the flour. You will think there is too much flour. There isn’t. Keep stirring until the flour is incorporated and you have a very soft dough. Stir in the chocolate chips.
- Chill for at least 30 minutes, but up to overnight.
- When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Scoop dough into giant rounded tablespoons and place onto a parchment-paper-lined baking sheet. The dough will still be quite soft. Be sure to leave a couple of inches of space between cookies. Flatten the top of each mound a little.
- Bake for 11-14 minutes or until starting to turn golden brown. They’ll still look underdone when you take them out, but don’t worry—they’ll keep cooking on the baking sheet. Remove from oven, press a few chocolate chips on top, and cool on baking sheet for ten minutes before moving them to a wire rack. Let cookies set for an hour before serving.
